by Logan Jacobs
“We’re not all ballerinas, you know,” I joked.
“I have never done ballet.” She shrugged.
“Are you sure?” I grinned. “Not even as a little kid?”
“I would not be caught dead in one of those pink tutus,” she replied. “I like more… punk rock? Is that the word?”
“Yeah,” I chuckled, “but you would look so good in a pink tutu. Like a fairy.”
“I would be a tough fairy.” She gave me a light punch on the arm.
“Of course,” I laughed as I raised my hands up in mock defense. “You are the toughest girl I know.”
“Let’s just get back.” She smiled.
“Sure, we can continue discussing your dance career later,” I replied.
She winked but didn’t respond.
We started out carefully toward the gallery, and we made sure to keep an eye out on the paddock and quad. I could just make out the distant shape of the carnivore we had killed earlier. Now that I knew there were flying dinos, I really wished I would have insisted on moving the thing earlier. I still didn’t know how exactly we were going to do it, but a dead creature that size was sure to attract something, especially something that could circle overhead.
I tried not to beat myself up about it. No one could think of every problem and solution. Especially in a world where dinosaurs were suddenly back and attacking people. Still, I had a lot to worry about. I really liked Becka and Hae-won, and now that I had made love to the beautiful Asian girl, my desire to protect her had only increased a thousand times. I really wanted to be the man she seemed to think I was, so I was going to have to do a better job of considering all the possible dangers and planning around them.
I focused back on the large creepy winged reptile. It was unlikely we would have had time to get rid of the big corpse today and still be able to finish our other tasks before it got too dark, but I might be able to do something about it tomorrow.
We reached the cover of the buildings by the square and I could see the gallery across the grass. Becka had laid all the panels out so we could quickly nail things together and put them up, but I didn’t see the blonde woman around anywhere. This made me worry a bit, but I didn’t see any blood or anything on the ground, so I figured she must have moved on to another project or was relaxing in our little fort.
“Let’s finish these panels now,” I said to Hae-won. “That way we’ll have them done and we can just relax with Becka and eat some food.”
“Okay, Jason,” she said, and I reveled in the sound of my name in her voice.
We found the pack of nails Becka and I had been using, and I asked Hae-won to hold the boards in place while I hammered them in. We finished up the first panel in no time and quickly moved over to assemble the next one before hanging them both in position.
“Do you think we need to do this to the windows in the staff room?” Hae-won asked as I hammered together the second panel.
“I don’t know,” I replied. “I was thinking we might need to when I saw that massive stegosaurus in the street earlier. It wouldn’t be after us or anything, but it could destroy the glass. Still, I’m not sure boards would be enough. Now, though, we have those flying things to think about. One might see us through the window and fly straight in like some type of dumb crow flying into a kitchen window.”
“Yes, it would probably be best if we put something up,” she agreed.
“We can make some more of these tomorrow and then put them inside on the upper level,” I explained.
“It will be too bad to lose the sunlight, though.” She sighed.
“Hmm,” I thought about that for a minute. There was still a chance that the power could cut out soon, and it would be a pain to have to do everything in the staff room by candle light. “Well, maybe we can make those panels less solid. The main reasons we would need it are to stop us from being showered by broken glass and to keep any flying things from spotting us inside. I think we could still do those and have some gaps between the boards to let some light in.”
“That could work,” she agreed as we nailed the first panel into position.
“We’ll try that first,” I said.
We put in the last panel, and then I gathered up the tools outside to take back up to the staff room. Hae-won and I also collected up the loose pieces of wood still remaining from the bookcases and set them inside the main entrance. I locked the door behind us and looked around at the fortress we had started to create. We had done a great job with the panels and it was nearly pitch black inside the main entrance now other than a small slit for us to see out of. The only light was coming from the small sliver of a window from the gallery. Becka must have decided to keep all the lights on.
I went over to the entrance door and tried to push it open, but I was met with a firm resistance. She must have slid the barricade into place when she came inside the gallery. I thought this was a good chance to test the strength of that barricade, though I hoped that it would never come down to needing it.
I tested it slowly at first and pressed my whole body weight against the door, but again, it didn’t move an inch.
“What are you doing?” Hae-won asked, likely confused by my movements in the dim light.
“Becka moved the display in front of the door, I just want to make sure it’s strong,” I explained. “Do you want to help? Push on the door here with all your weight.”
“Okay,” she replied and moved in close to me, forcing herself toward the door and digging her boots in to grip the floor.
Even with both of us pressing on it, there was no motion or any indication the door could be breached.
We stopped, and Hae-won let out a breath, “Nothing.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty solid,” I said. “One more thing, though.”
I took a few steps back from the door, sprinted forward, and angled my shoulder toward it. I slammed into the wood with my full weight and bounced back from the hit. There was a loud bang and the door rattled, but nothing gave way.
“Are you okay?” Hae-won asked as she ran over to me and placed a hand on the shoulder I had hit.
“Yeah, I’m great,” I replied, and then I pulled her against me and caught her by surprise with a kiss.
Our tongues gently danced for a few minutes, and then we both pulled away and smiled at each other.
“I like kissing you,” she whispered. “Also… the other activity we did.”
“Yeah,” I chuckled. “I liked it, too. A lot. And now this place is pretty safe now. Soooo, yay. Happy fort.”
“Good, you did an amazing job on it, Jason.” Hae-won smiled at me. “You are a good man. I’m happy to be with you.”
There was a shifting sound on the other side of the door, so I released Hae-won and turned to face the gallery entrance. There was some more shuffling and then some clicks, and the door opened to reveal Becka on the other side.
“What the hell were you doing?” she asked. “You scared me half to death with that banging.”
I smiled at her, “I was testing the barricade. It’s really strong. Good job getting that in place yourself, by the way.”
“It was bloody difficult,” she huffed.
“Don’t worry, we’ll help put it back,” I said as the two of us stepped into the main gallery.
“I should hope so,” she answered. “I mean, I have only done everything else.”
For a second I thought she might be genuinely annoyed since we had been gone such a long time, “Oh, sorry.”
“I’m just joshing,” she smiled and she must have seen my confused expression. “You know, joking.”
“Oh, okay,” I replied. “We have been gone a long time, though.”
“I figured it was because of that winged nightmare I saw,” she said as we pushed the display case in and started wedging in the benches. “I’m just glad you made it back at all. I wouldn’t be much use on my own with one working hand.”
“Yeah, we were in the last car when it appeared,” I said.
“It grabbed up this man right in front of us,” Hae-won jumped in. “It is huge, even bigger than that dinosaur we killed in the quad.”
“Really?” Becka asked. “I couldn’t tell that when I saw it. It was really far away, though.”
“Yeah, it must be twelve or more feet tall,” I agreed. “Plus the wings are even longer than it is tall.”
“That sounds terrifying,” the blonde said and turned to me. “Are you sure we’ll be okay to go to the clinic tomorrow?”
“I think we should be okay as long as we’re careful,” I replied. “We just have to be sure to watch the sky as well as the surroundings now. We might be able to take a car instead of walking, though. Apparently, Haw-won is a badass car thief and can make anything run.”
“Not anything,” Hae-won protested. “If it is too new, I can not start it that way.”
“Still.” I smiled at her. “Pretty much anything. I think we’ll be okay.”
Becka took a deep breath and nodded, “Do you two want some food? I managed to cook us some chicken.”
“Yes, please,” I said. “I’m starving.”
“Wait for me,” the Asian girl said from the floor where she was removing her armor.
The three of us made our way upstairs to the staff room and sat down to the meal Becka had prepared. The smell of roasted chicken wafted toward me as I entered, and I felt my mouth start watering.
“I only had salt and pepper to season it with,” Becka explained. “I did find some HP sauce in the fridge, though. I’m sure that will help it.”
I took a seat and saw that she sliced each chicken breast lengthwise to conserve the meat, and we each had a half of a breast sitting on top of a piece of toasted bread, sliced tomato, and some lettuce. Another piece of bread was beside the small pile.
“HP sauce?” I asked.
“Yeah, brown sauce,” she said.
“That doesn’t help,” I replied.
“Here,” she passed me the bottle, and it looked familiar, like the stuff I saw on tables in the pubs, but I had no idea what it tasted like. “Do you not have it in America?”
“No, we don’t,” I answered as I studied the bottle. “I don’t think Americans would buy anything called ’brown sauce.’”
The blonde woman rolled her eyes. “Just try it, it’s good.”
“Okay.” I shrugged and tipped a drop onto my finger.
I tasted the strange sauce, and it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. It was kind of salty, almost like a barbecue sauce but without all the extra flavor. It wouldn’t have been my first choice, but it would do for now, so I put some more onto the sandwich and passed it back to Becka.
“It’s good,” I said as I smiled at the beautiful blonde woman.
“Told you,” she said as she offered the bottle to Hae-won.
The Asian girl took the bottle and tried the sauce too before adding some to her sandwich.
Soon we were all deeply engrossed in our own meals. Rationing food like we were doing was necessary, but damn was it difficult. I finished the sandwich and fought the urge to get something else to eat.
“Jason says you need a shot,” Hae-won said to Becka when she finished eating her meal.
“I need a couple shots,” Becka replied with a grin. “Most of them tequila, or some fucking scotch, but one tetanus.”
“Well, we’re only making the trip for the medical need,” I added.
“Just the tequila, then,” she said. “Got it.”
Hae-won laughed. “Do you know where we’re getting the vaccine?”
“I did some searching while you two were out,” Becka said. “There’s a place about two miles from here. There is a chemist’s that’s a lot closer, but I don’t think they will have the shot I need.”
“That’s like a pharmacy, right?” I asked, and Becka nodded. “No, they probably wouldn’t. It’s better for us to aim for the clinic. Two miles isn’t that bad.”
“We should look at maps so we can take a good route,” the dark-haired woman said. “We should try to stay away from the main streets and if there’s a lot of parks and alleys, it might be better for us to walk.”
“Won’t that take a lot longer, though?” the blonde asked.
“Maybe,” I said. “But it could be safer. Besides, there is a chance the streets won’t be clear. We’ll have a look at the route there and see what our best options are.”
“Alright, Jason.” Becka nodded. “Do you want to pull it up on your laptop?”
“Yeah, one second,” I said as I got up from the chair, grabbed our three empty plates, and took them over to the sink.
“I tried to do the washing up,” Becka said and nodded toward the dirty dishes. “I couldn’t with the hand, though.”
“Don’t worry,” I replied. “I can do it later.”
I grabbed my laptop, brought it over to the table, and placed it in front of Becka. I punched in my password and went to grab my chair and pull it up next to the two women. Becka typed in a couple hurried strokes and clicked on the Google maps page. Then she zoomed out the image until we could see where our campus was.
“This is the clinic,” she said and moused over the spot on the map.
“Hmm,” I leaned in closer to the map, “Can you see what Google says is the fastest route?”
“In a car or on foot?” she asked.
“We’ll try both, look for the car one first,” I replied.
“Okay,” she agreed and typed in our location and then the name of the clinic.
It was a pretty direct route on the road, though obviously shorter. In total it would take around fifteen minutes, but there was no way we would want to use the main roads it was suggesting. Even if we did want to, I had a feeling they would be blocked by abandoned cars.
“And show me the one on foot?” I asked.
“Here,” she said and clicked on the walking option. “It’s a far walk.”
I watched as the estimated time shot up from 15 minutes to nearly an hour. There were a couple short cuts through parks and alleys, like Hae-won mentioned, but nothing that would significantly shorten the trip.
“What about there?” the blue-eyed girl said and pointed to a spot on the walking route. “That part is off the main roads and then it cuts through a park and side street.”
“What are you saying?” I asked her.
“We could drive here and then walk the rest of the way,” she explained.
“Hmm, that could work.” I looked closer at the map. “We just need to plan a route there that doesn’t go down the main paths.”
“How about this?” Becka moved the destination to the spot Hae-won pointed out, then changed the setting from walking to driving. After that she started dragging the blue direction line around, getting it off the main roads and around some side streets until the whole route was off the beaten path.
“Okay.” I looked over the path she had planned. “That could work. It’s still a pretty simple route, so we shouldn’t have a hard time following it.”
“It doesn’t add too much time, either,” Becka added.
“Okay, that’s a plan, then,” I said. “Take a screenshot of that, and I can send it to my phone. We can set out in the morning again, that seemed to work okay for us today, and this time we don’t have any armor to fix.”
“Great,” Becka said. “Do you want to look at some of the news and see if they know any more about what’s happening? I thought I might when you guys were out but I wanted to wait until we were all here. I didn’t want to sit here alone and just get more stressed out about things.”
“Sure,” I said, though I didn’t think the news was going to help any more than it had up to this point. I turned the laptop toward me, pulled up another tab, and typed in “UK news.”
The top article seemed to be some kind of public alert, so I clicked on that one first. It explained that the government was still requesting that everyone stay indoors, and that they were preparing to deploy the milita
ry against the threat.
“‘Civilians on the streets could be putting themselves and others in danger,’” Becka read the headline and then turned to me. “This sounds like we really shouldn’t be making the trip tomorrow.”
“We need the vaccine for you,” I argued.
“But the military is involved now,” she countered. “They might do a better job with it than the police. Maybe they’ll be able to help us soon. It’s not like I’m going to suddenly drop dead if we don’t get it tomorrow, we do have some time.”
“The portals keep adding more dinosaurs,” I replied. “That isn’t going to stop just because the military gets involved. Besides, you saw what the shops looked like already. Who knows how long it will take before all the clinics and hospitals end up the same way?”
“I mean, I guess,” Becka replied. “But it just feels like we’re putting ourselves in a lot of risk over me.”
“Look,” I sighed. “I’m not going to let you-- either of you-- get hurt. You need the vaccine, so I’m going to go get it. Okay? You are important to me, Becka.”
“Uhhh, right.” Her brown eyes stared into mine for a moment, and then her cheeks flushed a bit as she looked away. “I just feel so dumb for hurting myself, and I don’t want you to put yourself at risk because--”
“It is fine,” Hae-won said as she patted the other woman on the shoulder. “We are all in this together. We will take care of each other. We are a family.”
“Thanks,” Becka whispered as she glanced at Hae-won, and then the beautiful blonde began to blink a bunch.
“We’ve got you,” I said as I rested my hand on her jean leg. “You’d do the same for us.”
“I’m just… you two are great. Thank you.” Becka sniffed a bit, and then she cleared her throat and looked away. “But Jason, you said ’I’m going to get it’ earlier. We are coming with you.”
“Yes.” Hae-won nodded at me.
“Yeah,” I chuckled. “That’s what I meant. We are all in this together. We’ll take care of each other. It doesn’t seem like the government or anyone else will.”
“I’m just…” Becka took a deep breath. “Scared. You know? I don’t want to die.”
